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If You Were Here: A Novel of Suspense

Magazine journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenage boy from the subway tracks. When McKenna locates a video snippet that purportedly captures the incident, McKenna is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who vanished without a trace 10 years earlier. What might have been a short-lived Metro story sends the former-prosecutor-turned-reporter on a twisting search to dark secrets buried dangerously close to home....

Never Tell: Ellie Hatcher, Book 4

Sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire appeared to have everything: a famous father, a luxurious Manhattan town house, a coveted spot at the elite Casden prep school. When she is found dead in her bathtub, a handwritten suicide note left on her bed, her parents insist that their daughter would never take her own life. But Julia’s enviable world was more complicated than it seemed. The pressure to excel at Casden was enormous.

Dead Connection

Homicide detective Flann McIlroy is convinced that someone is using the lure of the internet and the promise of love to launch a killing spree against the women of New York City. To catch the killer, he calls up Detective Ellie Hatcher. She must enter a high-tech world where no one is who they appear to be. When the FirstDate killer begins to mimic the monster who destroyed her father, Ellie knows the game has become personal for him.

212: A Novel

When a student is murdered following a series of threatening messages posted on a college gossip site, NYPD detectives Ellie Hatcher and J.J. Rogan are assigned the case. As they dig deeper, however, they discover the victim was only one of many—and the killer isn’t finished.

All Day and a Night: Ellie Hatcher, Book 5

When psychotherapist Helen Brunswick is murdered in her Park Slope office, the entire city suspects her estranged husband - until the District Attorney's office receives an anonymous letter. The letter's author knows a chilling detail that police have kept secret: The victim's bones were broken after she was killed. Her injuries were eerily similar to the signature used 20 years earlier by Anthony Amaro, a serial killer serving a life sentence for his crimes. Now, Amaro is asking to be released from prison, arguing that he was wrongly convicted, and that the true killer is still on the loose.

Missing Justice

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Judgment Calls

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Close Case

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The Girl You Lost

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The Cinderella Murder

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The Other Widow: A Novel

It isn't safe. That's what Joe tells her when he ends their affair - moments before their car skids off an icy road in a blinding snowstorm and hits a tree. Desperate to keep her life intact - her job, her husband, and her precious daughter, Lily - Dorrie will do everything she can to protect herself, even if it means walking away from the wreckage. Dorrie has always been a good actress, pretending to be someone else: the dutiful daughter, the satisfied wife, the woman who can handle anything.

Wilde Lake: A Novel

Luisa "Lu" Brant is the newly elected - and first female - state's attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It's not the kind of case that makes headlines, but peaceful Howard County doesn't see many homicides.

The Memory Box

In this gripping psychological thriller, a group of privileged suburban moms amuse themselves by googling everyone in town, digging up dirt to fuel thorny gossip. Caroline Thompson, devoted mother of two, sticks to the moral high ground and attempts to avoid these women. She's relieved to hear her name appears only three times, citing her philanthropy. Despite being grateful that she has nothing to hide, a delayed pang of insecurity prods Caroline to google her maiden name - which none of the others know.

The Passenger

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The Couple Next Door: A Novel

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all - a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.

The Widow

When the police started asking questions, Jean Taylor turned into a different woman. One who enabled her and her husband to carry on when more bad things began to happen... But that woman's husband died last week. And Jean doesn't have to be her anymore. There's a lot Jean hasn't said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment.

Home: Myron Bolitar Series, Book 11

A decade ago, kidnappers grabbed two boys from wealthy families and demanded ransom, then went silent. No trace of the boys ever surfaced. For 10 years their families have been left with nothing but painful memories and a quiet desperation for the day that has finally, miraculously arrived: Myron Bolitar and his friend Win believe they have located one of the boys, now a teenager. Where has he been for 10 years, and what does he know about the day, more than half a life ago, when he was taken?

Ricki says:"I have so missed Myron and Win and now they are back. Yeah"

The Perfect Girl: A Novel

Zoe Maisey is a 17-year-old musical prodigy with a genius IQ. Three years ago she was involved in a tragic incident that left three classmates dead. She served her time, and now her mother, Maria, is resolved to keep that devastating fact tucked far away from their new beginning, hiding the past even from her new husband and demanding Zoe do the same.

What She Knew: A Novel

Rachel Jenner is walking in a Bristol park with her eight-year-old son, Ben, when he asks if he can run ahead. It's an ordinary request on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and Rachel has no reason to worry - until Ben vanishes. Police are called, search parties go out, and Rachel, already insecure after her recent divorce, feels herself coming undone. As hours and then days pass without a sign of Ben, everyone who knew him is called into question, from Rachel's newly married ex-husband to her mother-of-the-year sister.

The Darkest Secret: A Novel

Real estate mogul Sean Jackson is throwing himself a splashy 50th birthday party, but trouble starts almost immediately: His ex-wife has sent his teenage daughters to the party without telling him; his current wife has fired the nanny; and he's finding it difficult to sneak away to his mistress. Then something truly terrible happens: one of his three-year-old twins goes missing. No trace of her is ever found. The attendees of the party, nicknamed the Jackson Associates by the press, become infamous overnight.

Publisher's Summary

After a layoff and months of struggling, Alice Humphrey finally lands her dream job managing a new art gallery in Manhattan’s trendy Meatpacking District.

According to Drew Campbell, the well-suited corporate representative who hires her, the gallery is a passion project for its anonymous, wealthy, and eccentric owner. Drew assures Alice that the owner will be hands off, allowing her to run the gallery on her own. Her friends think it sounds too good to be true, but Alice sees a perfect opportunity to make a name for herself beyond the shadow of her famous father, an award-winning and controversial film maker.

Everything is perfect until the morning Alice arrives at work to find the gallery gone - the space stripped bare as if it had never existed - and Drew Campbell’s dead body on the floor. Overnight, Alice’s dream job has vanished, and she finds herself at the center of police attention with nothing to prove her innocence. The phone number Drew gave her links back to a disposable phone.

The artist whose work she displayed doesn’t seem to exist. And the dead man she claims is Drew has been identified as someone else.

When police discover ties between the gallery and a missing girl, Alice knows she’s been set up. Now she has to prove it - a dangerous search for answers that will entangle her in a dark, high-tech criminal conspiracy and force her to unearth long-hidden secrets involving her own family... secrets that could cost Alice her life.

What the Critics Say

“[Burke] makes the city her own. She takes New York with a knowing and confident hand, folding its teeming streets into character and plot in a story that is never less than gripping.” (Michael Connelly)

“Tremendous novel, and Alafair Burke is one of the finest young crime writers working today.” (Dennis Lehane, New York Times best-selling author of Moonlight Mile)

Guess I'm out of step here, lots of so-so reviews, but I liked this book -- a lot. Okay, I'm a die-hard Alafair Burke fan, love them all, and yes, I do like the Ellie Hatcher and Samantha Kincaid series better, but this was a fine listen, in every respect.

I'm also surprised by the negative comparisons to the author's father, James Lee Burke. I've liked reading several of the elder Burke's books, but have to confess, I can't stand listening to them. The narrator of the Robichaeux books is always the same man, Will Patton, and I absolutely cannot deal with that dragging, somnolent voice, which sounds like he's either extremely elderly, drunk or just waking up. Alafair's books, on the other hand, have very good narrators -- no problems whatsoever.

I thought this book had an intriguing plot -- the sort of thing you could see yourself getting into, more or less. Alice had been unemployed for a year, and even though she had wealthy parents, she really needed a job. So when this dream job -- supposedly -- was offered to her, she took it. I can see myself doing the same thing. From there? All kinds of things happen -- most of them not so good.

Let me preface this by saying that this was my first Alafair Burke novel. I didn't know what to expect.

I was disappointed with Audible (or the publisher) that the "book details" gave away so much of the story. It seemed that I must have listened to over an hour of the book before I heard anything new!

My first impression as I listened was that it was set up the way Mary Higgins Clark frequently sets up her novels: several different threads begin and eventually come together as the story is woven into cloth. I didn't know at the time that Alafair Burke has written a series with Ms. Clark. I also didn't know that she is the daughter of James Lee Burke (whose beautifully-written series I found depressing, so I gave up after the first one).

That being said, I enjoyed this story, and liked the twists and turns. I empathized with Alice's bewilderment, and appreciated the use of a Facebook account as a plot device.

I find that the "separate threads" method is difficult when I am listening to a book, and means that I end up going back a lot and listening again when I realize the narrator is no longer talking about the same person or place. But I did get used to it and realized I had to pay closer attention.

A good story, if a bit touchy-feely for a thriller. A girl's thriller I guess. Extra estrogen. But a decent amount of tension. Only one of the culprits actually surprised me and so while interesting wasn't the most original, but then again that would be a tall order considering the genre. Alice I found to be a bit too realistic if you know what I mean. Indecisive, ineffectual and easily manipulated she barely did anything to get a handle on what was happening to her. Different, I have to give it that, but I don't know...I couldn't really care because she didn't seem to. I think she felt that somehow she'd skate into a solution like she skated through the rest of her life. And her father (who I kept picturing as John Huston) was completely weird...as if he was channeling Oprah or something. And I remember wondering several times at some particular word usages; I can't remember any offhand, but If I do, I'll edit. Suffice to say they were odd enough to pull me out of the story for a sec. Still, I might give another one of Ms. Burke's books a try someday.

The story was so slow to develop that I was tempted to “book-mark” and move on to another; however since Alafair has never failed to deliver I persisted and was richly rewarded. Give it a try I highly recommend it.